“Situation” by Yaz

"Situation" began life in 1982 as a B-side, tucked behind "Only You", the debut single by Yaz, the British synth-pop outfit known in Britain as Yazoo. Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet wrote it, and while "Only You" went to number two in the UK, it was the flip side that American dance floors fell for. Issued as a single in North America, it reached 73 on the Hot 100 and 31 in Canada, then spent four weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart in late summer 1982, the act's first chart-topper there, and crossed over to 31 on the Black Singles chart.

The version most Americans know is François Kevorkian's 12-inch remix, which also went onto the U.S. edition of the debut album Upstairs at Eric's. It's a lean, jittery electro groove: pinging synths, a relentless pulse, Moyet's big, bluesy voice riding on top, and the famous laugh she lets out at the very start. Stations across alternative, variety-hits and dance formats still spin it far more than its modest Hot 100 showing would suggest.

It kept coming back. DJs including Peter Rauhofer and Richard "Humpty" Vission remixed it in 1990 and again in 1999, and in October 1999 the new mixes sent it back to number one on the dance club chart. In 2006 Slant put it at 64 on its list of the 100 Greatest Dance Songs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.